. >> commuting headache as people head back to work after days home in the snow. how many schools are delayed tomorrow and the high cost of cleaning up the storm. temperatures stay unseasonably cold but we'll have a couple days in the 40's. when to expect that in the sky watch forecast. >> i think we have great people. >> and "american idol"hollywood week wraps up. top 24 revealed differently this season. ♪ at the end of the day ♪ at the end of the day ♪

>> almost a week after the blizzard more than 3 feet of snow continues to disrupt lives. >> took me about an hour to go 3 miles. >>reporter: grid lock morning rush as people finally go back to work. >> tonight the school still being affected by snow clean up. the incredible cost to dig out of all the storms and dig out of all the storms and how high the next >> hello. >> it was back to work for thousands of people following baltimore's record setting snow fall. they were greeted be grid lock. >> kathleen live in north baltimore where the snow is causing commuter chaos. kathleen. >>reporter: the snow is still slowing everyone down. just take a look at interstate 83 behind me. some commuters say it is taking them triple the amount of time to commute back and forth to word and grid lock creates grumpy drivers. baltimore morning rush should

be called the morning wait. >> it takes 2 hours with all the traffic. >>reporter: valentine's is over. but there is nothing but red everywhere. >> it has taken me about an hour to go 3 miles. it hasn't been good. >>reporter: crush of commuters. >> bumper to bumper. >> all the way there. >>reporter: even with the light on green. it is at a standstill on saint paul. >> takes time. stressing at first then you kind of go with it. >>reporter: downtown. >> definitely annoying. >>reporter: a driving disaster. >> so it's not very far. >>reporter: kile traveled in on penny loafer from pig town. >> that's right. i do it pretty well. >>reporter: you don't have to put gas in them. >> that's right. they are good. very fuel efficient i would say. can't complain. >>reporter: right now you are looking at a live picture of some of the grid lock on interstate 83 on one of the ramps commuters finding ice popping up in the path no

matter where they go. for now they are simply learning how to maneuver around that mess. and everyone is hoping that it melts soon. live in north baltimore, fox 45 news at 5:30. okay kathleen. let's look now at the rest of the evening commute. kandace now has our traffic edge report. >>reporter: hi jeff. what a mess. the delay tonight and i can tell you it is not going to be a very fun drive out there even through the evening rush. we are checking out a lot of accidents in baltimore tonight. there is a crash on preston street at utah street and yet another one at howard street that is right at 21 street. not only are we seeing the snow posing a problem but now a lot of accidents and ice passes as well. as for the jfx as cavity leap just mentioned, it was grid lock there you can see it. still going to be generally jammed but look at the picture on the belt way moving right at the 83. you had an earlier accident on the

inner loop side expressway and now we are just left with a great stack of cars in both directions. that is a look at the very hectic evening travels. now back over to you. >> thank you. with nowhere else for the snow to go, the city continues to dump it into the harbor. truck load of snow being dumped at pier 5 downtown early today. cost of clean up is really adding up. karen parks live tonight in north baltimore with the total so far. karen. >>reporter: the snow has ended but it is still here. expected to take several weeks to clean up and each day passes, more and more money is spent. let me give you some examples. baltimore county is expected to spend 20 million dollars on clean up. baltimore city has exhausted the 3.5 million dollar budget. carol county will exhaust the 1.71 million dollar budget. andarundle county has already spent 10 million dollars. and clean up is far from over. the governor says the state is

expected to spend more than 100 million dollars toll on clean up. and now is asking for help from the federal government. >> when there is a declaration that they reimburse approximately 75 percent of your expenses so that would be what we would hope for and that's also true with the counties as well. >>reporter: we have also learned that howard county has also spent 2.5 million dollars so far. and the governor is expected to have the application submitted to the federal government within a week. reporting live in north baltimore, karen parks fox 45 news at 5:30. thank you karen. another major cost during the storm paying for more energy. while the snow is falling most resident heating their home. watching television and surfing the internet. electric bills expected to be much higher next time around. so bge resident with active account as of february the first will be getting a 1 time 100 dollar credit. it was a deal instruction between

constellation energy and development. >> back to school finally tomorrow. for many students it will still be a late start. andarundle, baltimore, carol, harper and prince george county schools are opening 2 hours late the rest of the week. caroline, charles and howard county schools open 2 hours late tomorrow. frederick and garrett county schools closed tomorrow. more school information is on the ticker at the bottom of the screen and on our web site fox baltimore.com. that brings us to our question of the day. schools reopen today. go to our web site and let us know what you think. sound off through face book. send us a tweet at fox baltimore and text us at this number on the screen. enter fox 45 a for ye yes, b for no and your response might air tonight on fox 45 news at 10:00. with all that snow still on the ground there are lots of opportunities for a great snow picture this photograph was taken by sherry moore. german shepherd bandit a

big, big fat snow pile with a great resting place. >> unload photo and video to our own web site and click on the icon and also send photo directly from the cell phone to pick at fox baltimore.many. a baltimore city police officer is under investigation tonight suspected of obstructing justice. joy tells us now the officer is placed on do not call list by prosecutors. >> lieutenant walker is now at the center of an internal affairs investigation. it is believed she approached attorneys in a drug case. she warned the defendant not to take a plea deal being discussed arguing the case was going to be shell. the lieutenant also posted bond in a separate case involving the same man. >> this administration has proven that we are committed to holding people accountable

and to policing ourselves. >>reporter: in this particular case it became clear that an officer not associated with this arrest directly or through a chain of command became involved with conversations with the defense attorney as well as the prosecutor. >> lieutenant who was once with the department special operation section has been transferred. state attorney office tells me if the internal affairs investigation finds that walker did violate the law, she may be placed on do not call list meaning she would not be called to testify in any future cases. it could also mean that some cases may be thrown out. this is news at 5:30. thank you joy. jury selection begins tomorrow in the trial of 3 people accused of starving a baby boy because he would not say amen after prayer. the couple are charged with starving 1-year-old thompson. 2 women will represent themselves in court. boy's mother was a

member of one mind ministry. he has yet to be sentenced after pleading guilty to child abuse resulting in death. 21-year-old is shot and killed in northwest baltimore. police were on the scene early this morning in the 3200 block of woodland avenue. 21-year-old daryn howard was shot in the face. he was taken to sinai hospital where he died. man shot by police and facing attempted murder charges is found dead in his jail cell. 61-year-old philip holland was found dead saturday morning at the city jail. he died of asphyxiation and appears to be suicide. holland was shot last month when he wouldn't surrender to police outside union memorial hospital. police say he was there stalking his girlfriend who was being treated after being attacked by holland. >> police arrest 3 men they say stole more than 250 storage units at andarundle and howard county. frank

lamb, william pierce and justin kaiser all from pasadena were arrested. it happened in december and january. one of the men was caught when police discovered he rented a storage unit to store stolen property. >> a warm-up is in our future. >> vytas will tell us if it is warm enough however to melt all the snow out there. >>reporter: president obama in wax. where the forever figure is now on display. >> i'm john. home foreclosure up and on the rise in maryland. tell you what the governor is doing to address the problem. coming up. with this package, you get fios internet, phone, and tv

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. >> home foreclosure still on the rise. john tells us tonight governor o'malley asking state lawmakers to take action now. >>reporter: foreclosure filings in maryland have jumped by 34 percent in the past year alone. that figure makes maryland the 13th highest per cap take in foreclosure. tens of thousands of family still face

possibility of losing their homes. the governor blames corrupt mortgage brokers approving loans to homeowner who didn't qualify. others were tricked into signing forms to increase the mortgage payment by thousands of dollars every year. so the governor and congressmen alike are urging state lockers to enact tougher safe guard. >> some of us know for sure when the national foreclosure crisis will end but until it does, we must do everything in our power to slow down this to keep throwing people out of home without even picking up the phone. >>reporter: one of the bills would require lenders to certify they made a good faith effort to negotiate with home owners to prevent foreclosure. this is news at 5:30. call the change state lawmaker tension. sen istor harris wants lawmakers convicted of crimes related to the office ineligible for pension benefit. move is motivated by 2 high profile

cases involving public official in other jurisdictions. >> the councilman in baltimore county who retires from part-time job with 60,000 dollar plus pension or former mayor who leaves having committed misconduct in office with over 80,000 dollar year pension. >>reporter: harris also wants to move all lawmakers into a contribution pension plan meaning the amount they will get depends on what the market does e.maryland getting 70 million dollars from the federal government to up grade a rail tunnel. the research group is pleased with president obama's plans to distribute federal stimulus money for high speed rail projects. experts say this is a great first step. >> i see rail solution to our economic, energy and environmental problems. so it will cut our energy consumption. improve travel. will assist in the resurgence

of american manufacturing and good quality long-term jobs provided. >>reporter: these 2 project are expected to save as much as 4 minutes off the travel time on amtrak between washington, d.c. and new york city. snow showers this morning but the skies are clear now. vytas back with us once again to tell us when we will be warmer. >> good news we only saw a little dusting of some of the snow. a little more to the north and northeast further north when you see a little more but nonetheless that looked like the low brought winds with it and we have a little bit of sunshine out there. hd radar showing right now scanning the skies. not much activity out there and few clouds and snow showers to the north and west of the city but most of the activity will continue to die down through the overnight. we still have a slight chance to get a little bit of a flake or two in the overnight into tomorrow. better chance is tomorrow with few scattered snow showers. looking here as we zoom out you can kind of see here the scattered snow showers to the north

associated with lake effect snow still wrapping around an area of low pressure still up to the northeast of us. look at the lake effect coming down around detroit, cleveland parts of michigan and indian and lake effect snow shower and caused by an area of low pressure northeast of us and still wrapping in the cold winds out of canada and will continue to see the windy conditions through the overnight tonight. into tomorrow that would drive a few snow showers into our area. looking at our same winds at 12 miles an hour out of the west, 23 in hagerstown, 15 miles an hour winds in dc. looking at wind gust from 24 to 35 miles an hour wind gust still kind of breezy out there making it feel pretty chilly. bundle up if you have to get out doors tonight. looking at temperatures at 35 in baltimore. 36 in dc. 37 in frederick that's the good they think we are actually seeing a little warmer air that will build in over the next few days here and help us melt snow. tonight clouds gathering temperatures at 24 for the low. breezy conditions with winds out of the west at 10 to 15. looks

like we will 10 to see a chance for snow showers for tomorrow but good news is remainder portion of the week and weekend temperatures will increase. show you how warm it gets coming up in the 7 day forecast. >> good time rolling in new orleans on this fat tuesday. >> fat tuesday is the culmination of two week of par parade, parties, celebrations. this year mardi gras extra festive thanks to the superbowl win by the new orleans saints. >> long party down there. president obama will live on forever in vegas. the wax museum in sin city unveiled the work of the president of the united states in the oval office features the presidential staff, even family photo. >> we have extended an invitation to him to stop by. we are not holding our breath. hope he does stop by to say hello. >> first dog also makes an

appearance outside the appearance outside the president's >> almost over. we are whittling it down to the final 24. >> top 24 idol con

>> hollywood round now continues on "american idol". >> this season there are some

changes. ♪ for some reason ♪ . >>reporter: here's the deal. judges will reveal some of the top 24 tonight and the rest tomorrow night. in previous seasons the entire top 24 were announced in one episode. new judge ellen is confident the judges are selecting the best singers from the crop of talent. >> i think we have great people and i'll fight very, very hard to keep people that i believe in so we have a wide variety of, somebody for every everybody, i hope. so i think it's going well. >>reporter: tonight two hour episode will feature solo performances from the contestant. watch it all tonight at 8:00 right here on fox 45. hollywood power couple gets ready to tie the knot. nicole and rocker boyfriend jolie are engaged tonight. been together for three years and have children together. >> oriole pitcher injured

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>> welcome back. i'm bruce cunningham. be of good cheer baltimore. spring is definitely on the way and i have got professor for you. here it is. pitcher and catchers report to the new orioles spring training headquarters in sarasota tomorrow and hold the first work out on thursday. center piece of the complex is the stadium built in 1989 seating 7500. white sox were the occupant then the red now the oriole. one of them is already taking advantage of the new site. the pitcher working out today in advance of those reporting tomorrow. but it was at the minor league facility at twin leaks park they are scurrying to get ed smith ready for thursday. meanwhile the orioles instituted new policy on commercial shoot after brad hurt his shoulder filming one

in december. the member of the staff will be present during all commercial shoots. ferguson strained his right shoulder during the commercial shoot missing 10 day of spring work out as a result. new home tonight in the nba. blake traded to the clippers in exchange for marcus. blake spent three years with the trail blazers averages 7. 6 p point, 4 assist perfect fame will likely back up dave is in l.a. he will lead maryland in the 2002 national title. >> update on winter poke. fourth win of the year tonight against stoney brook and prep player of the week award. all coming up on sports unlimited. back to you. >> thank you bruce. >> finally some good weather to talk about. >> let's go to vytas with the key word tonight being melt. any possibility of that. >> yes. as we get down the road we see temperatures actually increasing a little bit in the lower 40's which is good news to give us some melting of that piles and piles of snow we see out

there. look at the beautiful sunset as we see a chopper flying by there. looking at the helping force we see over the next several days. now tomorrow we could see a few clouds scattered snow showers early on light dusting that's about it. as of now looks like we have a pretty decent forecast coming our way. 33 degrees right now winds out of the west at 12. humidity level 53 percent and our pressure is 29.65 inches. as far as what east happening on the regional temperatures you can see a little bit slightly warmer earlier especially to the south on the western edge of the mountains temperatures in the 20's. seems cold out there and winter storm warning because as much as a foot and half of snow or more in upper elevation. that's tomorrow place that could probably get snow for the wrapping around snow for the wrapping around lake effect snow shower on the western edge of the